Crawling Into Your Veins
by lavenderlife
Summary: 10 year old Toph has a new sitter, and at first despises the idea of needing to be taken care of, but finds 14 year old Katara is slowly growing on her after only one visit. Partly because of her happy demeanour, and partly because of her voice when she sang a couple lyrics of a song, capturing Toph's interest. MODERN AU.


**Hello! My first avatar multi-chapter fic... I hope you like it! BTW:IT'S NOT YURI. No pairings, more just a Katoph friendship. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters of avatar. I wish I did. But I don't. (If I did Tokka would be canon) **

**ALL LYRICS BELONG TO ARIANE BECK, THE WRITER OF THE LYRICS USED IN THIS FIC! Find her stuff here:** /ariane-beck

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The Sitter

"I don't need a sitter." The green eyed ten-year-old stated a-matter-of-fact-ly.

The 'sitter' just smiled, unfazed by her cheekiness. "I know." She replied light-heartedly. "Strawberry jam or marmalade?" She asked the younger girl, turning back to the kitchen counter to put a spread on her sandwich.

Toph frowned. 'This one will be harder to crack.' She thought grudgingly, before grunting a reply of "I hate marmalade."

"Strawberry jam it is." The 'sitter' said in a sing-songy voice. Toph would need to remember her name the next time she said it, because the nickname 'sitter' would lose it's taunt if she used it to much.

_"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me hap-ppyyy, when skies are grey..." _The sound of someone singing floated in through the door from the kitchen to the living room. Toph had to admit, the older girl (whatever her name is) was a good singer.

"_You'll always know dear..."_ Toph smiled at how silly Katara (right, that's her name!) was being. Singing so loudly, and acting so carefree.

"You're quite the happy person." Toph said and Katara waltzed into the living room with two plates with sandwiches in one hand and two glasses and a carton of milk in the other. A box of chocolate chip cookies was stuck under her right arm.

"Yeah...I try to be." She said while carefully setting everything down on the coffee table. "Do you like to draw?" She asked Toph brightly.

"I guess..."

"Great! Me too! I'll get paper and some pencils."

Katara skipped out of the room. Who knew fourteen-year-olds could be so preppy? Toph answered the drawing question, but noticed that Katara had quickly changed the subject before Toph could ask her to elaborate on the 'I try' bit. What was she hiding? The younger of the two supposed that everybody had their secrets, their demons and devils. Being a ten-year-old, she forgot about it.

Katara came back with a stack of printer paper, a sketchbook, and three pencils.

"I hope you don't mind using this paper. If you don't want it, you could use my sketchbook. I brought three pencils 'cause I couldn't find any erasers and this one" She picked up a blue one, "has and eraser on the end."

Toph just nodded and grabbed a sheet of paper, and the sharper of the two pencils without erasers. She placed her hand on the page, her pencil posed as if to stab the paper if it moved. 'What to draw?'

When Toph looked over, Katara was already sketching away, her pencil stitching a girl's face onto the page. Toph turned her eyes back to her own blank sheet. She pushed the lead to touch the white, putting a grey dot smack in the middle of the page. Toph pulled the pencil of the page, and erased the dot. She then put her pencil down. "I don't know what to draw." She announced, as if it was absolutely necessary for Katara to know.

"Oh, I hate artist's block." Katara said, giving a little smile of sympathy.

"Uhuh." Toph replied bluntly, not expecting a reply in the first place. Then Katara started singing. Her voice was beautiful, much nicer, softer, than when she was singing in the kitchen.

"I, am a dream, and, I am a nightmare. I, crawl into your veins, I'd, like to spend the night there." Toph froze, not able to draw, or even make her body move. She was frozen in place by the sheer quality of Katara's voice.

"Cause it's oh-so-cold out here, you have to let me in. You know I hate these games I just can't let the frost win."

Toph got lost in the song, and in the sound of Katara's voice. The lyrics slowly weaved their way into Toph's mind, and soon, she had them memorized. So when Katara stopped singing halfway through, the silence jumped out at Toph like a monster hiding in the shadows.

"...Katara?" Toph had wanted to ask her to keep singing, but then thought better of it.

"Yes?"

"Could you- Um, what are you drawing?" Toph mentally slapped herself for sounding so shy, but it seemed as if Katara hadn't heard. Even if she did, she wasn't letting on.

"Oh, uh. I don't really know. I guess it's a girl of some sort. What do you think I should call her? Sometimes names help me get to know the character more."

Toph shrugged her shoulders, murmuring an "I dunno." before getting back to her still blank page.

In her mind, Toph tried as hard as she could to recall Katara's singing in her head, but couldn't. It was then that she found the unquenchable thirst for Katara's voice, and then that she knew Katara was her favorite out of the four real friends she had. Zuko, Aang, Sokka, and now the preppy fourteen-year-old sitter who sang a wondrous love song and captured Toph's interest.

That night, Toph went over what she knew about the sitter so far, and found these 5 things.

1. Her name is Katara.

2. She tries to be a happy person all the time.

3. She's a good sandwich-maker.

4. She is a really good drawer.

5. She is an incredible singer.

That night, Toph went over what she knew about the sitter so far, and found that 5 things was not nearly enough. That night, as Toph fell asleep, these words danced through her head;

"I, am a dream, and, I am a nightmare. I, crawl into your veins, I'd, like to spend the night there. Cause it's oh-so-cold out here, you have to let me in. You know I hate these games, I just can't let the frost win. Oh, no, woah, oh..."

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**There, all finished! Let me know what you guys think... *Nervously awaits comments and feedback* :3**


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